


This May Not Be One to Tell The Kids

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: That Was Quick [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, awkward mornings, drunken proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 23:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8304937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Sam really ought to know better than to drink when he's already dealing with strong emotions.  Cas knows better than to believe a drunk person's words, but this time, he can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, Sam did mean it.





	1. The Night Of

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "You were drunk and proposed to me but i’m not sure how to bring it up now you’re sober bc i totally would have said yes AU"  
> From @motorcycledean through DailyAU on Tumblr.

Dean sank into one of the library chairs, clearly exhausted. “Sam’s in bed. Asleep. You promised to tell me how it got so bad that you had to interrupt my night out, so start talking.”

“I came home to find Sam already very drunk, and then…” Castiel trailed off. He had no idea how to explain the events of the evening.

Dean’s brow wrinkled in concern. “That’s not like Sam. He say anything about why he was sitting at home drinking so hard? I mean, me, yeah, all the time. Not Sam.”

“If we can trust his word, he didn’t like that I went out with you tonight.” If Sam had said something before they left, Castiel would have gladly stayed home with him. The night had gone exactly like he’d expected: he and Dean hung out for a few hours, played some pool and darts to make some money, spent a good portion of the money they earned on alcohol, and then Dean had found a girl to go off with and Cas had come back to the bunker. It was fun, and it was always good to spend time with Dean, but if he’d known it would upset Sam it was nothing he minded missing out on.

Dean blinked. “Okay, that makes no sense. Sam could’ve come with and he knows it. You made him explain better, right?”

“Not exactly, but I have a theory. You tend to end your nights out by hooking up, and I think he doesn’t like the idea of me hooking up with someone.”

“Okay, what the fuck.” Dean leaned forward in his chair. “He’s never minded me hooking up, even when it meant he spent the night in the car instead of the motel room. Why’re you different? It can't be the angel thing, can it?”

Castiel took a while to answer. “He asked me to marry him.”

Dean opened his mouth, closed it again, shook his head, and tried again. “You sure you understood him right and he wasn’t just using some weird slang?”

“His exact words were ‘Castiel, I want to marry you. Will you marry me?’ I don’t always get nuance or slang, but that seems straightforward enough, does it not?” He’d been trying to find anything, any other way to interpret Sam’s words. He couldn't.

Dean was silent for a moment. “Uh, yeah. Wow. Did not see that coming.”

Finally, Castiel could relax a little. He’d been concerned that he’d missed something very obvious. Dean was usually the easier to read of the brothers, but he’d thought he’d gotten better at reading Sam. But if Dean had missed it too, then Sam had either not meant it or hidden it very well. “Neither did I.”

Dean winced sympathetically. “Awkward. What did you say?”

“I told him to ask me again when he’s sober.”

Dean raised an eyebrow. “And?”

Castiel sighed. “And he got mad, threw the bottle in his hand at me, told me to say no like a grownup, and stormed out with a new full bottle. That one." Cas pointed to the empty bottle Dean was still holding. "That’s when I called you, because I’m fairly certain if I’d tried to go after him, things would only have gotten worse.”

“Damn.” Dean looked at the bottle. It wasn’t exactly a small one. “Should I be worried about alcohol poisoning?”

Castiel got to his feet with an eyeroll. “Please don’t insult me, Dean. Once we’re done here, I’m going to go heal him. He won’t even be hung over when he wakes up.”

Dean glared at him. “You’ve never done that for me.”

“I promise, should you get drunk and ask me to marry you, I’ll heal you up too," Castiel snapped. He closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. "It’s going to be a complicated enough conversation tomorrow morning without putting a hangover in the mix, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, you got a point there.” Dean laid his head on his arms on the table. “Will Sam even remember proposing?”

Good question. One Castiel didn’t know the answer to. “Possibly. I hope so.”

Dean looked up with a raised eyebrow. “You want him to remember?”

“If he remembers, I won’t have to convince him somehow that yes, he asked. Of course, if he remembers, he may try to avoid speaking to me out of embarrassment.”

“I should get to sleep myself. Good luck tomorrow morning.” Dean struggled to his feet.

Castiel made sure Dean would stay vertical long enough to get to bed, then turned to go heal Sam. “I’m sorry for interrupting your hookup.”

“Don’t worry about it. Always willing to drop what I’m doing to do my job. And hey, speaking of my job…” Dean turned around and came to stand in front of Cas. “You know that taking care of Sammy means hurting people who hurt him, right?”

“Dean, you know full well I would much rather harm myself than Sam. It’s why you trust me to take care of him when you can’t.”

“Yeah, I know. Just… be careful, okay? Don’t want you getting hurt either.” Dean headed off before Castiel could reply.


	2. The Morning After

Sam was incredibly confused when he woke up the next morning. He remembered getting drunk. He knew he’d had a lot. Where was the hangover? He deserved it, for his selfishness and ridiculousness. The only person doing anything wrong the night before was him.

He should have been stumbling, barely able to manage upright. Instead, Sam felt good. Relaxed and rested in a way that was highly unusual for him. The only possible answer was Castiel, but why would Cas do that for him? After his idiocy, he’d have considered himself lucky just to have Cas speaking to him.

He found his way to the kitchen for coffee. Dean was there, looking a little worn out and a lot more tired than usual after a night out. “Hey. You okay?”

Dean chuckled. “You’re the one who got smashed. How you feeling this morning?”

“I think I know why hangovers exist.” Sam poured himself some coffee. “Hangovers act as your body’s way of protecting you from having to remember your idiocy and deal with it all at once.”

“So you remember, huh? Cas wasn’t too sure if you would.” Dean sat back. “He wants to talk to you, and you might want to go get through the awkward so you can stop making me suffer from it.”

“After I’ve had some coffee.” Sam drank his cup quickly. Dean was right. May as well get this over with.

He found Cas in the library with a book about angels. It made him smile. “That telling you anything you didn’t already know?”

“Not new information, but a different perspective.” Castiel set the book aside. “Good morning. Are you okay?”

“I’m guessing I have you to thank for the fact that I’m not hung over.” Cas nodded. “Thanks. I’m sorry about last night. I was way, way out of line.”

“You were also highly intoxicated. I hold none of it against you.”

“But I shouldn’t have been drinking like that in the first place. I mean, it’s really none of my business what you do.” And if this is how he was going to act, there was less than no chance it ever would be. He'd thought it was hopeless before. Now he was left wondering if it was possible to have negative levels of hope.

Castiel stood up. “So you meant it last night when you said that you didn’t like me going out with Dean?”

Sam flinched. That sounded wrong. “I don’t have to like it. You’re not…”

“Am I correct in thinking that it’s not Dean, it’s that you don’t like the idea of me hooking up?”

It’s not like Sam hadn’t expected Cas to figure it out. Still, a fresh wave of shame and guilt hit him. “It’s really not any…”

“Sam, you should have said something before I left. If I’d known, I could have chosen not to go, but even if I still went I could have set your mind at ease. I have absolutely no interest in hooking up.”

“What was I supposed to say? 'Hey, Cas, I know you're a big boy and all but the idea of you hooking up like Dean does really bugs me'?" Sam shook his head. "I’m sorry. You have no reason to even… you don’t owe me any kind of explanations or anything about whatever you do. Or don’t do.”

“Your apology is unnecessary, but accepted anyway.”

Sam nodded. It was necessary to him. Cas may be willing to forgive but that didn’t mean Sam was off the hook for his stupidity. “Are we done here?”

“That depends.” Castiel took a step closer to Sam. “You asked me a question last night. Are you not asking now because you didn’t mean it, or because you don’t remember?”

Sam was tempted to take the easy way out, to say he didn’t remember, but that was a load of crap and he suspected Cas knew it. And would probably remind him anyway. “I’m not asking because I should never have asked last night.”

Cas tilted his head. “Why not?”

“Because… something like that shouldn’t come out of nowhere. Definitely not when I’m so far wasted that you have to ask in the morning if I remember.”

Castiel was smiling now. “I know you’ll remember, and I have some warning.”

“Sorry about getting mad at you last night. Your answer was a lot more than I deserved. I deserved a punch in the nose or something.”

“Sam.” Now Castiel sounded exasperated. “You never deserve to be punched. And I don’t understand. Saying no would have been easy enough last night.”

“So why didn’t you?” And then they could have pretended it never happened. The Winchester way.

“Because that’s not what I wanted to say!”

That was absolutely the last thing Sam had expected. It didn't make any sense. “Huh?”

Castiel sighed. “I know you’re smarter than that. But fine. Sam, would you marry me?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. I’ve loved you for years, but never thought you had any interest in me that way.”

“I don’t… you…” Sam stared at Castiel, waiting for any sign of him taking it back. There was none. “I think you already know what I want.”

“I think so, too, but you deserve the courtesy of being asked. If you won't be the one to do the asking.”

“Then… yes.”

Castiel reached out, touching Sam’s face gently. “Good. May I kiss you?”

Sam huffed. “Dude, I just agreed to marry you. Kind of goes with the territory.”

“Not if you say it doesn’t. Being your husband doesn’t give me any right to make you do something you don’t want to.”

“And this is why I love you.” Sam bent his head, letting Castiel come up the last couple of inches to kiss him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment are loved and hugged like puppies!


End file.
